Seoul Botanic Park in Gangseo District, Seoul / Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government Seoul Botanic Park in the western side of the capital is building a living archive of the city’s plant diversity, aiming to expand its collection to 8,000 species by 2027.The park said Wednesday it now holds 6,558 plant species and 2.19 million individual plants, more than twice the number of species it had when it opened in 2019.The collection includes 2,133 woody plants and 4,425 ground-cover and flowering plants, with more than 2,000 species managed in themed gardens and about 3,400 in exhibition greenhouses.The park has added 3,542 species over seven years through field collection, purchases, exchanges with domestic institutions and international seed exchanges.It has secured 508 species through joint surveys and collection efforts with organizations including the National Institute of Ecology, while its Index Seminum seed exchange program has brought in 1,442 species from 22 countries since 2020.The park said it is shifting particular attention toward plants with high conservation value, including endangered wildlife, rare and endemic species and plants designated for protection by the Seoul Metropolitan Government."We will steadily achieve our goal of securing 8,000 plant species by 2027 to strengthen our biological conservation efforts," said Director General On Su-jin. "We will continue sharing these achievements to highlight the importance of plant diversity." Earlier this year, the park was designated as a national conservation institution for rare and endemic plants. Its collection includes 23 legally protected endangered species, as well as 81 rare or endemic species.Among the plants representing Seoul are Pterygopleurum neurophyllum, Malus seoulensis, Viola seoulensis and Viola albida var. chaerophylloides, while five Seoul-designated protected species are also being conserved.The park is also cultivating plants obtained overseas, including Cupressus sempervirens, Ilex cornuta and Salacca zalacca, some of which are now on display in its exhibition greenhouses.Newly acquired plants are propagated and managed in the park’s cultivation greenhouses before being used for exhibitions, research and educational programs.This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.